My living room smells!! Help me!!

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Last year my dad slept in my living room for 2 months!! Since then I honestly cannot get the smell of "sweat, musty, BO, old man" out of my living room.

Ive cleaned the sofa, washed the covers, I bought a vax carpet cleaner, washed the carpets, washed the arms of the sofa, I leave the windows open every day where possible, ive febreezed the sofas and the carpets and yet every god damn day it smells of old man!!!

I cant cope!! Im so sensitive to smells and its driving me mad!!

Whats worse is we're selling up soon for a bigger house because dad wants to live with us and im dreading it!! I cant live with this smell!!

Every morning, I come downstairs and its here, lingering, tormenting me!!!

Help!!!!!!!

Potentially might need to clean the walls and paint them, and if you have underlay under the carpet this might need removing?

Bo must have sunk deep into the sofa cushions.

Can anyone else smell it or is it just you?

This may sound odd but check the carpet under your radiator valves. We had a tiny slow leak that made the carpet ever so slightly damp over a long period of time. The smell was very cheesy feet / wet dog / BO related.

I'm with you OP. I'm really sensitive to smell too. I've had to wash cushions after people have leant on them. You might just have to carry on airing the room and get a really cold draft going through it and hope that the smell fades. It must be really strong if it hasn't gone yet!

'Dad wants to live with us' but you don't want him to? You need to sort this out!
Maybe get somewhere with a garden room
Or you could put a caravan in the garden for him!

It’s quite possibly psychological - your brain is telling you that you don’t want him there so it’s reminding you of the smell. What other options are available to him? Sheltered housing?

If you don’t want him to live with you then can you find him an alternative?

The Elderly Parents section on MN is usually supportive and informative

I mean, at the very least, sell up and buy a smaller house where he can't live with you?

Is the smell really there? That sounds surprising given the amount of time that has elapsed, the amount of cleaning you’ve done and how brief his stay was.

Ask someone neutral to give their honest opinion.

As PP said, wash your walls (soapy water, gentle cloth. Don't rub or scrub, glide or dab if your paint is particularly affected) and prepare to repaint (If you're moving anyway, a few coats of a cheap neutral paint).

Can you get the furniture and soft furnishings outside to air out? In the garden, get some air on them.

Also, ask a friend to come and smell it. They might pin-point an area

Put the sofa outside for a couple of hours and see if the smell goes. If not then a deeper clean of it or replacement?

How old is your DF OP?

Ignore the gaslighting here, people telling you you’re imagining it. I have a very acute sense of smell too, and can smell things other people can’t. I can detect a faint smell of smoke for example, and then other people can smell it later when it’s stronger. I can hear less well than other people but wouldn’t dream of telling them they’re imagining things when they can hear something I can’t.

You say you’re moving house because your dad wants to live with you, but you don’t want to. You do not have to. Don’t do this to yourself to please your father, it will end in utter misery for you.

I suspect this too. I can smell certain people, none of them 'smell' it's just I can identify them. Tmi but I even know who has had a poo from any whiff in the air.

Re your living room it's got to be fabric, have you taken your sofa covers to a launderette / outdoor washing machine? A really big one so the covers have room to really move around with the washing? Unless there's enough room for that in your machine obviously.

Did you air dry the covers outside? Have you used the crevice tool on your hoover and done every inch of your sofa and pulled it out completely and hoovered behind and under?

Febreeze I think will make things worse because you won't know if it's actually clean. Is your washing machine clean enough? If not run it through on 90.

I think try washing all the sofa fabric more thoroughly in your machine again.

Burn some incense. The smoke and smell should go everywhere the bo smell has been.

Have you washed your curtains? they can hold smells.
I would get sofa and cushions out in strong sunlight if possible, it is excellent at removing smells.
Wash all covers again in a hot wash with biological washing powder.
And don’t buy a house with your father.

Is it nonenal, the smell some old people get? Normal washing doesn't shift it, but persimmon soap and eating mushrooms several times a week do. Google it.